Three funeral related businesses are under watchful scrutiny regarding the widely spread investigation of stolen body parts. At the center s Michael Mastromarino, a former dentist from Fort Lee indicted on charges of running a criminal ring that stole body parts for profit from more than 1,000 corpses in three states between 2001 and 2005.The body parts, were allegedly removed without families' permission, then sold to commercial tissue processors and subsequently implanted in thousands of patients around the world. One of the indicted cutters described how corpses, from which bones and other tissue had been removed, were made presentable for viewing before being cremated.
Numerous red flags noticed by new funeral owners caused them to contact authorities about accounting and record keeping irregularities. One dead body is worth up to $250,000 on the human tissue market, which is a thriving legal business in the United States as long as proper procedures -- including permissions from relatives -- are followed.
New Jersey authorities do not appear to be investigating Mastromarino's stolen cadaver activities. In Philadelphia and Rochester, where Mastromarino also operated, local authorities have launched criminal investigations. In New York, criminal defense attorneys for all four defendants have filed motions for dismissal.
The indictment has spawned at least 49 federal civil complaints against Mastromarino's business and tissue companies that processed his stolen body parts for sale to doctors and hospitals.
